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Man accused of making threatening comments about judge ordered to stand trial

By Mike Jones newsroom@heraldstandard.Com 4 min read
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The man acquitted nearly two decades ago of the double-homicide at Price’s Tavern, but who later served jail time for an unrelated crime, was ordered to stand trial Friday on charges that he returned to the Washington County Courthouse multiple times in late March and made threats against the judge who sentenced him.

Gerald Allen Gregg ranted and cursed while sheriff’s deputies led the shackled defendant out of the courtroom after District Judge Kelly Stewart held all charges for court, including felony retaliation against a judicial official and misdemeanor terroristic threats.

“This is (expletive),” Gregg shouted as he was escorted from his preliminary hearing in Courtroom No. 1 at Washington County Central Court. “It’s happening again.”

Gregg, 58, of Washington, is accused of driving his vehicle to the courthouse on March 27 and then twice on March 30 in which he allegedly made threatening comments about President Judge John DiSalle to random strangers standing outside the judicial complex.

A woman who works in the courthouse testified that she arrived about 7:45 a.m. March 27 when a man matching Gregg’s description asked her what time the doors opened.

“He just started on this rant about how they were trying to get him 20 years ago,” she said, before recounting that the man mentioned John Pettit, the late district attorney who prosecuted Gregg’s double homicide case.

“He’s gone now, but I’m still here and changed my life,” the woman remembered hearing Gregg say as he mentioned Pettit by name.

The witness went inside the building to get sheriff’s deputies, but Gregg had left by the time they came outside.

“I was extremely uncomfortable,” she said.

Three days later, a man testified that he was outside the courthouse when he saw a man pull up in his vehicle and get out before he started shouting.

“These mother (expletive) tried to kill me years ago. I’m going to kill yinz now,” the man remembered hearing Gregg tell him.

Gregg then mentioned DiSalle’s name, the man testified, although it’s unclear what threat was made against the judge.

“I didn’t know what to expect next,” he said, before getting security, although Gregg once again left before deputies came outside.

DiSalle was the judge who sentenced Gregg in April 2007 to serve one to four years in state prison after he pleaded guilty to a disturbance at a city home that happened in November 2003.

But two years earlier, Gregg had been acquitted in the Election Day double homicide on Nov. 3, 2003, at Price’s Tavern on Route 19 in North Strabane Township. Fred Brilla, 50, of Canonsburg, and bartender Martin Brahler, 40, of Venetia, were found dead inside the tavern. Moments after Gregg was acquitted by a jury during the 2005 trial before Judge Katherine Emery, he was arrested and charged with robbing a man in the city 17 days after the tavern murders, leading to his eventual plea and state prison sentence.

Washington police Officer Daniel Florian testified during Friday’s preliminary hearing that police were searching for Gregg’s vehicle following one of the courthouse incidents when he located the vehicle parked at an Allison Avenue gas station. Florian testified that Gregg yelled at him that “they tried to execute me 20 years ago” in apparent reference to the homicide cases. Florian arrested Gregg on March 30 when he was seen outside the courthouse making threats for a second time that day.

Gregg’s public defender, Jake Mihalov, argued that while his client may have made strange rants, he never directly threatened any public officials, including DiSalle.

“I heard nothing from the witnesses to force violence on anyone or an official,” Mihalov said.

First Assistant District Attorney Leslie Ridge disagreed, saying there is evidence that Gregg did threaten DiSalle, according to Reilly’s testimony.

“We have a former defendant sentenced by Judge DiSalle who comes up to the courthouse three times and says he wants to kill Judge DiSalle,” Ridge said.

Stewart agreed and ordered Gregg to stand trial on the two charges, along with a summary offense of driving with a suspended license. Gregg has been held without bond at the Washington County jail since his arrest.

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